Doctors' Day in Cuba

In 1959, the country had only 6,000 doctors, half of whom emigrated after the Cuban revolution. Today, Cuba has amongst the highest ratio of doctors to population size, with 8.2 per 1,000 people. The Communist country has been sending doctors abroad since 1963, bringing in billions of dollars each year. Cuba has many trained medical workers because healthcare was a prime concern to former Presidents Fidel and Raúl Castro and their Health Minister who himself was a doctor Ernesto “Che” Guevara.

Physician's Day is celebrated in honor of Cuban physician Carlos Juan Finlay Barrés, born on December 3, 1833. Dr. Finlay Barrés confirmed the theory that yellow fever was spread by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, a finding of worldwide importance that prevented thousands of deaths in Latin America. During the wars for Cuban independence, he was summoned by the U.S. Army to analyze the casualties of the soldiers due to yellow fever and there he proved that the aforementioned mosquito was the transmitter of the disease.